The Institute for Multiparty Democracy (IMD), a non-governmental organization (NGO), defended that the Mozambican State Budget needs more transparency.

Dércio Alfazema, head of the IMD, said that challenges related to transparency in revenue management still prevail.

He said that "there is a deficit in the implementation of the legislation, in a context where there are limited resources.

The organization asks for "a more rigorous political supervision" by the deputies, namely in what concerns "accountability" and "transparency in the management of public resources", reads a statement.

The president of the Plan and Budget Commission (CPO), António Niquice, noted that the advent of decentralization, decreed in 2018 in an understanding between the government of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) and the main opposition party, the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), made it difficult to divide a budget that was already scarce.

"It is a budget that used to be 'one', for action by the provincial government," while "now it is divided into three. There we are faced with a situation that is indeed difficult, but these are the resources we have, and we have to distribute them to everyone.

The budget that was previously channeled to the provincial governments' actions, with "decentralization, passed to three bodies: provincial executive councils, councils of provincial state services, and provincial assemblies," notes the IMD statement.

At the meeting, Niquice also said that the country should aim for an "increase in the volume of exports" to raise "more foreign exchange" and broaden the "tax base."

Covid-19 has complicated the scenario, he admitted, all the more so in a country like Mozambique: "It is difficult to redistribute in a context where resources are scarce" and "the needs are enormous," stressed the deputy, also pointing to the withdrawal of direct support for the State Budget by international partners as another difficulty.

Direct support was withdrawn in 2016 after it was discovered that Mozambique had incurred hidden debts of $2.7 billion for public maritime defense companies that never operated.